Angular and Energy‐dependent Neutron Emission from Solar Flare Magnetic Loops

Abstract

We have developed new neutron production kinematics and thoroughly updated the neutron production cross sections, and we have included ion pitch-angle scattering and magnetic mirroring in our Monte Carlo simulation programs, to make new calculations of anisotropic neutron emission produced in the solar flare magnetic loop models. The anisotropy in these models arises from the combined effects of converging magnetic field lines and a rapidly increasing ambient density in the portion of the loop below the chromosphere-corona transition. We have carried out new calculations of the depth, time, angle, and energy dependences of the neutron production, the angle distributions and energy spectra of the escaping neutrons, and the energy spectrum of the surviving neutrons at the distance 1 AU from the Sun. These new calculations will now allow much more reliable and detailed analyses of the various solar flare neutron spectral observations.